From Teacher to Coach

Abstract

The Ethiopian Government has demonstrated a firm commitment to supporting farmers in developing the agricultural sector to a more productive, modernised level in short time. The Ethiopian extension system has huge potential in making a substantial and vital contribution to this effort: not only through the high level of training of development agents (DAs), but also through the shear and unprecedented quantity of extension services: in Ethiopia, we see approximately 21 DAs per 10.000 farmers on average, a number which may be much higher in some areas, and less so in others (ATA 2017). This means that Ethiopia has one of the highest densities in the World, a fact that bears great potential to provide a base for grass-roots extension services, and a real bottom-up approach (ATA 2017). In addition, there are close to 12 500 Farmer Training Centres (FTCs) in operation, though at varying degrees, they still offer a large potential (ATA 2017).